


Merry Christmas

by acidicavocado



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-18 02:20:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21670240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidicavocado/pseuds/acidicavocado
Summary: Based on story prompt:I was just thinking about ‘the prank’ and what if it was the other way around? What if it was Remus that did something thoughtless and hurt Sirius? Someone pleaseeeee write an angst with a happy ending fic about this and I’ll love you foreverrrrrrrrrrrr.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Merry Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Youshinesobright](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Youshinesobright/gifts).



“Here’s your present, Moons,” Sirius said and handed Remus the last gift on his pile. It was the only one that was wrapped out of all of them, the others were just in fancy gift bags. It was wrapped pretty terribly, but Remus didn’t care. It made him feel special that his present was the only one Sirius cared enough about to even try and wrap.  
They were all sitting on the floor in their dormitory, exchanging christmas presents. Since everyone was leaving on the train tomorrow, they had decided to do it tonight instead of after the holidays.  
Remus carefully removed the ribbon and then started tearing off the wrapping paper. Inside was a box. Curious, he took off the lid, and suddenly, there was a loud bang and Remus shrieked as he threw himself away from it.  
“Sirius!” he yelled. “What the fuck was that?”  
But Sirius was already rolling on the floor laughing. “You should have seen your face!” he laughed, gasping for air.  
Remus glared at him as he wiped the soot from his face and his hands on his robes. “Didn’t you explode enough things in Charms last week? You have to start thinking of new pranks. This is getting boring.”  
“Well, that was just a practice test,” Sirius grinned.  
“Oh, c’mon, chill out, Moons,” James cut it. “It’s not like you’ve never exploded anything before.”  
“Well, I guess I had just hoped that Christmas would be explosion-free,” Remus said crossly, but he sat back down.  
“Well, technically, it’s not Christmas yet…” Sirius started, but Remus stopped him with a glare.  
“We’re handing out presents, so it’s Christmas for us, regardless of if some holy guy was born today or a few days later. Did you know that Jesus was actually born in the summer, but they changed it so that Christmas would be in the winter?”  
“Who’s they?” Peter piped up curiously.  
“How the fuck should I know?” Remus retorted. “The point is that we decided to give each other our presents today before we all left for the holidays, so it’s Christmas for us today.”  
“Calm down, Moony, you’re scaring Wormtail,” James yawned and ruffled his hair. “Honestly, you two are like an old married couple.”  
“Wormtail’s fine,” Remus snapped hotly.  
“He’s right, I’m fine,” Peter agreed.  
“See?” Remus turned back to Sirius. “Did you get me an actual present, too, or just an exploding one?”  
“‘Course I did, Moony. You’re the first person I got one for.”  
“That’s a lie,” James said. “He totally panicked because he had no idea what to get you.”  
Sirius glared at him. “Do I tell people your secrets?”  
“Sometimes, yes.”  
“I tell Peter that one thing one time and now-”  
“Guys!” Remus interrupted. They both stopped.  
“Sorry, Moons,” Sirius said. “Here’s your present.”  
He handed Remus a heavy bag. Of course it wasn’t wrapped, Remus thought. He probably had to wrap the other one to keep the box from opening and exploding too soon.  
“Thanks, Pads,” he muttered and took the bag from him. He opened it and looked inside. It was a book. A very familiar looking book. He pulled it out and frowned, confused. “Is this my own copy of my favorite book?”  
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Just open it.”  
Remus opened it to the first page. There, right under the title, it said: To Moony. And under that there was a signature. “Is this… real?” he asked softly, tracing the letters with his fingers.  
“Yeah. He was doing a signing when you were… you know… sick, so I-”  
He was cut off abruptly by Remus throwing himself at him. “This is amazing. Really. Thank you so much.” He kissed him and Sirius grinned triumphantly.  
“So you’re not mad about the explosion anymore?” he asked.  
“No. A little annoyed, yes. But mad, no.”  
Sirius laughed and kissed him again.  
“Get a room,” James yelled.  
Sirius threw a pillow at him.

A few hours later Sirius and Peter had gone to the bathroom and it was just James and Remus in the dormitory.  
James turned to Remus. “You still want to get him back?” he asked.  
“Who, Padfoot?” Remus replied, and James nodded. “Well, yeah, but that can wait ‘till after the holidays, can’t it?”  
“Well,” James said thoughtfully, “I might actually have an idea of how you could get him back. It’s nothing too bad, but it would have to be now.”  
He thought about it. “I don’t know… I don’t want to ruin Christmas for him.”  
James rolled his eyes and ruffled his hair. “Oh, c’mon, Moony, it’s just a prank. It’s not like you’re breaking up with him.”  
Remus sighed. “Okay, fine. Just tell me.”  
James looked him in the eyes. “Okay,” he said, like he was starting a presentation. “He totally scared the shit out of you, right?”  
“Well, I wasn’t that scared…”  
James gave him a look.  
“Okay, fine, he did,” Remus admitted.  
“Okay,” James said again. “So what you have to do is scare him back.”  
“But how? Padfoot’s barely scared of anything!”  
“Well, see, that’s the thing. Padfoot is always pretending that he’s so high and mighty and isn’t scared of anything. But there’s something he is scared of. Something we’re all scared of.”  
“What?”  
James paused for dramatic effect. It didn’t make the moment particularly more dramatic, though. Remus just wanted him to get on with it.  
“Our parents finding out about all the shit we do at school.”  
Remus thought about that. “What exactly are you suggesting?” he asked carefully.  
“Well, the train is leaving tomorrow afternoon, right? So, you tell Padfoot that you overheard Minnie talking to Flitwick yesterday, but you forgot to tell him because of the whole explosion thing, and that they’ve decided to send an owl to all of our parents about the explosion in Charms last week.”  
“That’s actually kind of… genius.”  
James shrugged, ruffling his hair again. “Well, it’s my idea, so that’s not exactly surprising.”  
Remus punched him lightly in the chest.  
“Ow, Moony!” James exclaimed. “I was kidding!”  
Remus shrugged. “I know. It was annoying.”  
James glared at him and Remus rolled his eyes.  
“Do you think we should tell Wormtail about it, though? I mean, he’s gonna freak. But on the other hand, he couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it.”  
James groaned. “Oh god, I forgot about Wormtail. We’ll just have to prank him, too. He’ll survive.”  
“Okay, I guess. Now c’mon, we should get to bed so we don’t look suspicious.”

The next morning Remus woke up to a sock flying at his head.  
“Sorry, Moons!” Sirius yelled as he ran over to get it back. “I meant to throw that at Prongs.” True to his words, he tossed it across the room at James.  
“What the hell, Padfoot? What was that- oh. That’s mine. Thanks.” James hastily threw the sock in his trunk along with an assortment of different unfolded and unorganized items.  
Remus rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. James and Sirius were frantically running around trying to pack everything on the floor into their trunks. The impossible feat of doing this before breakfast was made even more difficult by the fact that they kept tripping over everything. Occasionally you would hear an ‘ow’ or a ‘fuck’ before they went back to packing. Remus locked eyes with Peter across the room, who was sitting on his bed with his legs pulled to his chest, trying to stay as far away from flying clothes as possible.  
He groaned and got out of bed. “You two always do this! This is exactly the reason why everyone else always packs a few days earlier, but you two are so ‘oh, c’mon, we’re not gonna waste time packing when we could be having fun!’ And then our dormitory always turns into a goddamn hurricane.”  
“Yeah, yeah.” James waved him off. He looked at Remus pointedly.  
Of course! The prank! Should he do it now? It was as good a time as any. But did he really want to do this? Well, he decided, it wasn’t anything too bad, he was only gonna scare Sirius a bit. And, of course, Peter. They would be able to deal with it.  
“Um, by the way, I heard Minnie talking to Flitwick yesterday, and they send an owl to all of our parents about the prank in Charms last night. They said it was one too many pranks. I thought I should tell you before we all get home so we can prepare ourselves.”  
Sirius suddenly froze midway through throwing a shoe in his trunk.“When?” he asked quietly.  
“I told you, yes-” Remus started saying, but Sirius interrupted him.  
“I know when you heard them, when did they send the letters?” he snapped, making Remus jump.  
“I’m not sure… Padfoot, calm down!  
“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!”  
Remus quickly took a step back, scared. Had he gone too far? Sirius never looked at him like that. Never. That was the face he reserved just for Snivellus. But this wasn’t such a big deal, why was he making it one? And why were his hands balled into fists, and why was one around his wand, and why…  
Sirius relaxed. “Moony?” Remus heard him say. He felt hands on his shoulders. “Are you okay?”  
Remus nodded and Sirius sighed, running a hand through his hair.  
“Moony, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just… I don’t know.”  
He backed away and headed towards the door.  
“Where are you going?” James asked. “You haven’t finished packing yet!”  
“I’ll pack it later. I’m just gonna get some breakfast.” Sirius left, leaving James and Remus to look at each other quizzically.  
“Should we tell him?” Remus asked uncertainly.  
“He’ll be fine. He’ll be laughing about it by tomorrow.” But James didn’t sound as certain as he had the night before, either.  
“Tell him what?” Peter asked, making Remus jump again and James whirl around.  
“Merlin, Peter, I forgot you were here!” Remus exclaimed. He tried to think of a lie. “Um… it’s nothing, it’s just another present we were gonna give Padfoot after the holidays. We thought it might, um, cheer him up.”  
Peter frowned. “Why don’t you just give it to him now?”  
Remus looked at James for help.  
“We, uh… ordered it too late,” he offered. “It hasn’t come yet.”  
Peter didn't look convinced, but fortunately, he didn’t dwell on it. “What should I do about my parents? They’re going to kill me!”  
James and Remus shared a look before they both climbed onto Peter’s bed and helped him brainstorm ideas about how to get back after the holidays unscathed.

The train ride was filled with silence. James and Remus tried to crack jokes, but Peter just sat in the corner with a terrified look on his face and Sirius spent the entire time pacing up and down the carriage wringing his hands. Not being able to take it any longer, Remus finally pulled James aside.  
“I think we should tell them,” he whispered just out of earshot of the other two.  
“Yeah,” James agreed. “I mean, it would be funnier if they found out on their own, but…” He gestured to Sirius, who had just started muttering to himself.  
They walked back to Peter, and once Sirius had reached their compartment again, Remus said, “We have to tell you guys something. Padfoot, come here for a second.”  
Sirius gave him a confused look but complied. “Is something wrong?”  
Remus just grabbed his hand and guided him to the seat next to his. He took a deep breath and said, “Okay, so no one sent owls to our parents. It was a prank. James was in on it, too.”  
“Yeah, we wanted to get you back for all the exploding stuff,” James added.  
It was quiet for a moment. Then Peter started laughing. “That was a prank? Merlin’s beard, I was really scared!”  
“Yeah, you should have seen the look on your face,” James snorted. “You looked like a scared rabbit.”  
Remus laughed and turned to look at Sirius. His grin quickly faded when he saw the expression on his face.  
“It was a prank?” Sirius said quietly, his face stony.  
“Well, yeah,” Remus said carefully. “We thought it would be funny, y’know, ‘cause you always-”  
“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!” Sirius roared suddenly. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?”  
It was completely silent again until James laughed a little and said, “C’mon, Padfoot, don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit?”  
“OVERREACTING?” Sirius yelled. “YOU THINK I’M OVERREACTING?” He got up and walked to the door. “You know what, just leave me alone.”  
“Where are you going this time?” James called after him, but Sirius had already slammed the door behind him.  
Remus sat in stunned silence. He felt tears start to form in his eyes. He had only been trying to prank Sirius, like he always did to him. How could this have gone so wrong? In a split second decision, he jumped up and ran after him.  
“Padfoot!” he called, but Sirius ignored him. He got to an empty compartment and sat down inside. Remus followed him.  
“C’mon, Pads, I’m sorry, okay? Just please talk to me.”  
“I told you to leave me alone. Can’t you ever do anything right?”  
Remus suddenly felt anger rise up inside him. He tried to stop himself, but before he knew it, he was yelling. “You know, you’re being a real bloody asshole right now! You play pranks on me all the time, but I do one tiny thing to you and you act like a five-year-old who’s just had his candy taken away!”  
Suddenly Sirius was on his feet, shouting in Remus’ face. “One tiny thing? One tiny thing? This isn’t just some tiny thing.”  
“Oh, c’mon, what’s the worst that could happen, your mum takes away your favorite toy? Even Wormtail thought it was funny, and he’s scared of everything!”  
“You just don’t get it! You think you’re the only person in the world who has problems? You think I don’t have bigger problems to deal with than following you to that stupid tree once a month because you can’t handle being on your own? But no, you’ve never even thought about that, because everything is always just about you!”  
Remus felt like he’d been slapped in the face. He took a step back, stunned.When he spoke again, his voice was shaking. “You know, I never asked you to come with me. But if I’m such a problem, then I guess you don’t have to don’t have to do anything with me ever again!”  
Sirius sat back down. “Fine!”  
“Fine!” Remus spun around and ran out of the compartment. He waited until Sirius couldn’t see him anymore, then he sank to the floor and started to cry.

The holidays were terrible. Remus stayed in his room crying most of the time. His parents asked him what was wrong, but he didn’t know what to say to them. Not even christmas dinner or presents could cheer him up. It was the day after Christmas, and he was rereading his favorite book, the one Sirius had gotten signed for him, when his mum called.  
“Remus! Come downstairs! An owl came with a letter, and it’s addressed to you!”  
Remus went downstairs, confused. “A letter? Who is it from?”  
“It’s from a… Sirius Black. Is he a friend- Remus?”  
Remus snatched the letter from her and ran back upstairs. He looked at it.There was his name, and Sirius’ name. And it was all in Sirius’ handwriting. He eagerly ripped it open.

Dear Moony,  
I’m so sorry about what I said. I’ve been thinking about it nonstop and I am so sorry that I hurt you. What I said wasn’t true, I was just being a stupid git like always. I love you, and I’ll always be there for you- that is, if you still want me there. I really want to explain everything to you, but I don’t know how to do it in a letter. I’m just hoping you’ll still want to talk to me after the holidays.  
Love,  
Padfoot

Remus stared at the letter, tears in his eyes. Of course he would forgive Sirius. How could he not? He loved him. So much. He held the letter to his chest and buried himself under the covers, sobbing quietly.

It was the last day of the holidays and Remus was standing at Platform 9¾ next to James. He had already said goodbye to his parents, and they were looking for Peter and Sirius.  
“Look, there he is,” James said, pointing behind him.  
Remus turned around and saw him. They locked eyes and Sirius smiled a small smile, an uncertain look in his eyes. Remus pushed his way through the crowd towards him, earning himself a few annoyed stares, and Sirius started doing the same. They met in the middle and wrapped their arms around each other, neither of them wanting to let the other go.  
“I’m so sorry,” Sirius whispered into his ear.  
“I’m sorry, too,” Remus whispered back.  
Sirius pulled away and looked into Remus’ eyes. “Can we talk?”

They were sitting together in an empty compartment. They had left their trunks with James and Peter in their compartment which they were going to go back to later.  
“So, um, I really don’t know how to say this,” Sirius started. “But I guess I could start by saying that you were right. I did overreact a little.”  
“I’d say more than a little,” Remus joked gently, trying to lighten the mood.  
A slight grin appeared on Sirius’ face. “Okay, more than a little. And I am so sorry about what I said.”  
His voice cracked and Remus realized that he had tears in his eyes. “Hey,” he said, grabbing his hand. “It’s okay. We all make mistakes.”  
“But I hurt you,” Sirius choked, trying to stop the tears from falling.  
“Yeah, you did. But it’s okay.” Remus pressed his forehead to his. “I’m here for you, okay? Just please tell me what’s going on. I’ve never seen you like that before.”  
Sirius took a deep breath and pulled away. His voice still shook slightly when he said, “Okay, remember when I came back after the holidays with a broken nose and I told all of you I ran into a wall?”  
“...yeah?”  
“Well, I never ran into a wall.”  
Remus looked at him quizzically and Sirius sighed before continuing.  
“My parents, they can be pretty… intense. Especially my mum. And they already hate me because I’m in Gryffindor. I’m not like them. So if they got a letter like that, right before the holidays when I couldn’t get away from them for two weeks…” He trailed off and broke down sobbing.  
It dawned on Remus what Sirius meant, and he felt like a wave of cold water had crashed over him.  
“Oh my god,” he whispered. He wrapped his arms around Sirius’ shaking body. “Oh my god. Padfoot, I am so sorry.”  
He kept holding Sirius until it seemed he was out of tears. He finally looked up and Remus wiped some of them away.  
“I’m so sorry,” Remus said again. “If I had known, I never would have-”  
Sirius stopped him. “But you didn’t know. It’s not your fault.”  
“Listen to me,” Remus said forcefully, squeezing his hands. “You don’t have to go back there. You can stay at Hogwarts during the holidays. And I’ll stay, too. And it’ll just be the two of us. And maybe James and Peter will stay sometimes, too, if we tell them. And you can stay with me during the summer. Or with James, he wouldn’t mind. You’re like a brother to him. And- what?” He stopped once he realized that Sirius was smiling at him.  
“It’s nothing,” he said. “You’re just so perfect. And I love you so much.”  
Remus smiled back. “I love you, too, Padfoot. So much.”  
They kissed for what felt like forever. When Sirius finally pulled away, breathless, he said, “I should probably go apologize to James. I yelled at him, too.”  
“You should,” Remus agreed. “And Sirius,” Remus took his hands again, “Maybe you could tell him. We’re all here for you, and James loves you, too. He’ll want to help.”  
Sirius looked down. “I’ll think about it.”  
Remus nodded. “Okay. But that can wait. Let’s just stay here a little while longer.”  
He wrapped his arms around Sirius again, who leaned against him, both glad that that they had each other again.


End file.
